Family violence has long affected our community, extending trauma and loss across every level of society.

For most of the last century, family violence was mostly hidden, deemed shameful and seen as an individual or family problem. It was not recognised as a crime until 1975, and before this there were no dedicated services or support for victim survivors. During the 1960s and 1970s, amid the growing women’s liberation movement, feminist activists were shaping and defining understandings of gender and politicising women’s oppression, inherently tied to patriarchy.

Against this backdrop, the refuge movement was born as a direct response for women who were experiencing family violence, and facing homelessness, poverty and social stigma. These activists worked long and hard, mostly as unpaid volunteers, to shine a light on the women and children who were being abused and murdered.

Victoria’s first refuge, the Women’s Liberation Halfway House, was established in 1974. By 1979, sixteen refuges had been established – including the Aboriginal Women’s Refuge (now known as Elizabeth Hoffman House), and dedicated services for Italian women. By the late 1980s, there were more than thirty refuges. In 1987, The Crimes (Family Violence) Act was passed in Victoria, expanding options for family violence victims to seek Apprehended Violence Orders.

This swell of collective action was driven by courageous and visionary women working to dismantle patriarchal power and create a safer world. A core group of leaders within this movement came together to form the Victorian Women’s Refuge Group in 1976, later known as Victorian Women’s Refuges and Associated Domestic Violence Services (VWRADVS).

In 1985, VWRADVS received a small $50,000 grant to fund an advocacy centre. The Domestic Violence and Incest Resource Centre was born.

One woman and a typewriter

The Domestic Violence and Incest Resource Centre (DVIRC)’s humble beginnings were fuelled by fierceness and informed by a radical feminist perspective that viewed sexual assault
and family violence as crimes arising from a gendered power imbalance in society.

With the support and backing from VWRADVS, Lynne Burgoyne was employed as the inaugural sole worker of DVIRC. Equipped with her typewriter, Lynne worked tenaciously in the corner of another small feminist organisation, the Women’s Information and Referral Exchange (WIRE), centering child sexual abuse and family violence in DVIRC’s advocacy agenda.

In 1987, DVIRC formed the Women’s Coalition against Family Violence, a network which launched the ‘Domestic Murders Campaign’ – the first major public campaign to recognise family violence deaths. A boost of funding in 1989 provided the opportunity for DVIRC to expand grassroots community activities, with a focus on refugee and migrant women.

Formative years

The early to mid-1990s saw huge shifts in the family violence and sexual assault sectors across legislation, policy and advocacy. In 1991, The Crimes (Rape) Act passed, making significant changes to Victoria’s rape laws including clarifying legal definitions of consent. In this same year, the High Court of Australia confirmed the legal right of women to refuse sex within marriage, and Victoria Police released their Code of Practice for the Investigation of Sexual Assault. The first 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence campaign was held in 1991, and the Telephone Services Against Sexual Assault was established providing a state-wide, after-hours service to victims of sexual assault.

From a collective to a peak body

In 2001, family violence was identified as a top priority for Victoria Police by Chief Commissioner Christine Nixon, resulting in the Victoria Police Code of Practice for the investigation of Family Violence. In 2004, a VicHealth and Department of Human Services study identified intimate partner violence as the leading burden of disease for Victorian women aged 15 to 44, followed a few years later by VicHealth’s first survey of community attitudes towards violence against women. One of the most significant statistics to emerge in Australia during this time came from the second Personal Safety Survey conducted by the Australian Bureau of Statistics which showed that one in three Australian women had experienced violence from a male partner. This was a shocking number, and one that pushed conversations around family violence into the collective consciousness.

During this time, the Victorian Government was beginning to listen and take action. The Statewide Steering Committee to Reduce Family Violence was established, the first Women’s Safety Strategy was launched, and VWRADVS was working to establish a policy position within the family violence sector. This work paved the way for the transition of VWRADVS from a grassroots collective to an official peak body for specialist family violence services, known as Domestic Violence Victoria (DV Vic). Janine Bush was the first paid employee, as DV Vic’s Policy Coordinator from 2002. In 2005, Fiona McCormack was appointed as DV Vic’s first CEO.

This was a period of enormous change, as the coordinating collective became a Board of Management. Prior to this, VWRADVS met regularly but had no public profile – Fiona was tasked with establishing DV Vic’s voice and visibility in a way that would represent the sector effectively.

A very small but influential lever for advocacy, DV Vic drove systemic changes and established a key role within statewide coordination, specialist practice development and policy reform.

In 2006, DV Vic developed the first Code of Practice: Principles and Standards for Specialist Family Violence Services Responding to Victim Survivors in Victoria. This was an important moment in DV Vic’s history, requiring the family violence sector to come together and find consensus on practice principles and standards. This was followed two years later by the introduction of the Family Violence Protection Act 2008 from the Victorian Government.

During these advocacy-focused years, DV Vic solidified its position as a key voice of family violence expertise, convening the EVA Media Action Group to improve media reporting on family violence from 2012, and presenting on Victorian family violence reforms to the United Nations NGO Parallel Event on the Convention of the Status of Women in New York and at the Roundtable for United Nations Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women. This coincided with state government developments, including the release of Victoria’s Action Plan to Address Violence Against Women and Children.

DVIRC becomes DVRCV

In the late 1990s and early 2000s, DVIRC utilised the online space to support victim survivors and family violence professionals, launching their first website in 1997. This was followed in by When Love Hurts (later renamed Love: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly) and Bursting the Bubble, both innovative sites designed for children and young people.

In 2001, DVIRC became a Registered Training Organisation, delivering the first accredited family violence training in the country. By 2007, DVIRC was delivering statewide training on the Family Violence Risk Assessment and Risk Management Framework (often referred to as the Common Risk Assessment Framework, or CRAF, working to support a consistent approach for assessing and managing family violence risk across Victoria.

From its earliest days of one worker and a typewriter, DVIRC had grown its impact and reach to become a hub for family and genderbased violence resources, research and workforce capability building. In 2009, the collective opted to become an Incorporated Association, changing its name to the Domestic Violence Resource Centre Victoria (DVRCV), and appointing its first Executive Officer, Vig Geddes.

In 2013, DVRCV partnered with DV Vic to launch The Lookout website, a single source for specialist family violence practice information and resources. In the same year, DVRCV
launched the SmartSafe website, based on Australia’s first research into technology facilitated abuse. This later led to the development of SmartSafe+, a smartphone app that would go on to win the Premier’s iAward for Public Sector Innovation in 2016.

During these years, there were several key state and federal reforms in the family violence space. In 2009, the Commonwealth Government appointed the first National Council to Reduce Violence against Women and their Children, and the second National Community Attitudes Towards Violence Against Women Survey was undertaken, including Aboriginal and culturally and linguistically diverse communities for the first time. In 2011, the national sexual assault and domestic violence counselling service 1800RESPECT was launched, and in 2013, both Our Watch and Australia’s National Research Organisation for Women’s Safety (ANROWS) were established as initiatives out of the National Plan to Reduce Violence against Women and their Children 2010-2022.

In spite of all these changes, ongoing family and gender-based violence across all communities continued to fuel both DV Vic and DVRCV’s commitment to advocacy and education activity. Between 2010 and 2014, there were several high-profile sexual assaults and homicides that left the community shocked and demanding change.

On 12 February 2014, Luke Batty was murdered by his father in broad daylight, on a suburban cricket pitch in Melbourne. Following years of family violence perpetrated against Luke’s mother Rosie Batty, the system ultimately failed to protect Luke and Rosie. In the aftermath of this unthinkable tragedy, Rosie stood up and joined the calls of many strong advocates before her. Her and Luke’s story struck a chord with Australians, helping to change the national conversation about family violence, leading us to a point of no return.

In this same year, DV Vic, DVRCV and No to Violence (the Victorian peak body for services and practitioners that work with men who use family violence) were funded to manage the rollout and training of Risk Assessment and Management Panels (RAMPs): formally convened meetings comprised of key agencies and organisations to share information and take action to keep people at the highest risk from family violence safe. DV Vic and DVRCV also worked together to establish the No More Deaths alliance, calling for family violence to lead the agenda in the 2014 Victorian state election. This was a year of unprecedented media and community focus on family violence, marking the beginning of enormous changes within the sector. This included the appointment of a new ministerial portfolio for the Prevention of Family Violence, held by Fiona Richardson MP – the first such position in Australia.

In the months following Luke’s death, DV Vic’s CEO Fiona McCormack accompanied Rosie to meet with Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews to demand change. Rosie’s advocacy was instrumental in his decision to call a Royal Commission into Family Violence, a watershed moment that led to unprecedented investment and reforms within the Victorian family violence system for years to come.

A reform agenda

The Royal Commission into Family Violence was held in 2015. DV Vic and DVRCV were key contributors to the proceedings, developing multiple submissions and providing testimony across the 25 days of public hearings. In 2016, the Royal Commission released its report, with the Victorian Government committing to implement all 227 recommendations, followed by an investment of $2.7 billion to support this.

Focus on the family violence sector was at an all-time high, resulting in dramatic organisational shifts for both DV Vic and DVRCV.

During this time, DVRCV tripled in size. Under the leadership of a new CEO, Emily Maguire, the organisation’s strategy focused on building capability across sectors, positioning DVRCV as the go-to voice on workforce development for the family violence and primary prevention sectors. The time had come to re-focus DVRCV’s strategic direction, which meant closing the organisation’s library.

2016 saw the release of Victoria’s first gender equality strategy Safe and Strong, followed by Free from Violence, the State Government’s strategy to prevent all forms of family violence and violence against women, placing the spotlight on primary prevention. Post-Royal Commission, the expansion of DVRCV saw the establishment of a dedicated prevention team, expanding the Partners in Prevention program established back in 2007 to support the delivery of respectful relationships education initiatives in schools.

In 2018, DVRCV hosted the first primary prevention conference on ‘Achieving Generational Change’. Rebranded as PreventX, the conference grew and evolved in 2019 and then online in 2020, demonstrating a shift in Victoria from a nascent prevention sector to one that was becoming more established and resourced.

During this time, the culture of DVRCV was one of feminism, hard work and camaraderie – going above and beyond to create opportunities for lightness and positivity to help make the heavy work sustainable for staff. DV Vic also grew exponentially in the years following the Royal Commission, establishing a practice development unit in 2017 to ensure members were appropriately resourced to sustain and strengthen their specialist family violence practice.

More broadly, the sector was becoming more professionalised. In 2016, the Victorian Government established both the Family Violence Steering Committee (with DV Vic’s CEO and the Minister for the Prevention of Family Violence as co-chairs) and the Victim Survivors’ Advisory Council, to place people with lived experience of family violence at the centre of reforms. 2017 saw the release of Building from Strength: 10 Year Industry Plan for Family Violence Prevention and Response, as well as the establishment of Family Safety Victoria to lead the implementation of the government’s family violence reforms. The Common Risk Assessment Framework (CRAF) was reviewed and re-developed, becoming what is now known as the Family Violence MultiAgency Risk Assessment and Management Framework (MARAM).

In 2019, DV Vic published the Second Edition of the Code of Practice: Principles and Standards for Specialist Family Violence Services Responding to Victim-Survivors in Victoria. Building on a significant resource that informed the development of Victoria’s family violence sector over many years, the second edition of the Code of Practice retained a specialist, intersectional feminist lens on family violence work as the sector became more joined up with the mainstream Victorian human services system.

For more than three decades, DVRCV and DV Vic (and their previous iterations) have been two key organisations within a broader social movement working to push family violence into the public domain. In partnership with member services, victim survivors, community leaders, and government partners, both organisations have led the establishment and coordination of the specialist family violence sector in Victoria, frequently sharing positions in advocacy and campaigning. Informed by each other’s skills and expertise, the respective roles in the Victorian family violence system held by DV Vic and DVRCV have always been complementary.

In 2019, as the sector moved into a new phase of systemic reforms, the Boards of DV Vic and DVRCV identified that a merger would grow the capacity of the peak to listen to and support the work of frontline services, reflect members’ experience, and embed the voice of lived experience in policy, advocacy and systems reform work.

Following a robust consultation process, their Boards and members voted in favour of an organisational merger in 2020, with Tania Farha appointed as the CEO of the new entity soon after.

Combining strengths, energy and resources for greater impact, this merge represented a new chapter in the long histories of two well–respected organisations, further widening the lens of the family violence sector to ensure all voices and experiences are understood and included.

In 2021, Safe and Equal launched as the new peak body for specialist family violence services responding to victim survivors in Victoria. With a new name and united vision, Safe and Equal will work towards a world beyond family and gender-based violence, where women, children and all people from marginalised communities are safe, thriving, and respected.

Safe and Equal exists because of the activism, leadership and expertise of victim survivors, practitioners, and leaders who have come before us demanding safety and equality.
To them, we say thank you.